Universal is looking to create a shared universe, much like Marvel has done with its super heroes. What does Universal have at its disposal? Possibly the greatest lineup of classic monsters ever set to film. To that end reshoots were added to tie this film into future ones of a planned shared monster universe franchise.
Vlad The Impaler was taken as a child, trained with many others to be a warrior, and rose among the ranks to be one of the most feared and ruthless of them. After this introduction we first meet him as an adult, leading his own men, and something happens to kill a couple of them scaring everybody in the process.
Foreshadowing.
At the Easter celebration Vlad is visited by the Ottoman Sultan’s envoy who demands 1000 children as warriors. After refusing this sets up a conflict that will last the rest of the film. To turn the tide of battle Vlad revisits the monster at the beginning of the film. Concurrent with the conflict on the battlefield we get Vlad’s battle with himself.
The color scheme is dark, which I expected, but not quite so much as it is here. I imagine the producers, director, cinematographer and everybody else involved said something like “Look at that lovely green field of grass. Let’s use a filter to make sure it looks dark so nobody thinks this is a vibrant landscape.”
I wanted to like this more, but the story sort of plods along, and we know the ending so whatever tension there is feels falsely generated. The idea that Vlad would turn to a dark power in order to save his people and his family is a nice twist on the tale, but something which could have been all done in half the time Dracula Untold takes.
Dracula Untold is sort of open ended, so it can have a sequel or not, tie in with the other upcoming Universal monster films, or not. Maybe plans were scrapped for the shared universe of monsters. Whatever the case, there is an interesting idea here, it just doens’t come out very well.
Special features are plentiful starting off with an audio commentary by director Gary Shore and production designer Francois Audouy. They go over quite a bit including the reasoning behind several sey scenes. An alternate opening and some deleted scenes are also available, and also with audio commentary. There are also a number of featurettes looking at the production from various angles and while many of them are short (I really would have rather seen a more cohesive and comprehensive one) they come together to make a decent look at the making of the film.
Dracula Untold isn’t the film to feature the character, but it also isn’t the worst. Time will tell if this is the kick-off to a shared monster universe for Universal or not.